Poland's KNF asks British regulator for closer supervision of Revolut

Gdynia (Reuters) - The Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF) asked its British counterpart to monitor more closely digital-only bank Revolut Ltd after problems with its services, it said in a statement on Thursday.

On July 1, UK-based Revolut said in a blog post that on that morning a large number of payments were either timing out or completely failing.

The company, whose products include a mobile application that allows users to exchange currencies at interbank rates, is allowed to conduct its business within the European Union, including Poland. It said last month it had signed up two million customers across Europe, representing a 300 percent increase in user growth over the past year.

Poland is its third biggest market, after Britain and France.

“In connection with the situation which has occurred and the growing scale of the company’s operations, the Office of the Polish Financial Supervision Authority has asked its British counterpart, supervising Revolut Ltd, to ensure and maintain increased supervision over the company,” KNF said.

A spokesman for Revolut said in an emailed statement in response to Reuters questions on the KNF request that the company has been working over the last nine months to bring payment processing in-house to help reduce further incidents like that.

“We sent detailed communications on the issue to all customers and even offered to reimburse any customer who was forced to use another card abroad,” he said.

The company plans to contact Poland’s regulator and hopes to start “an effective and long-term relationship”, he added.

KNF said it does not have legal and operational tools for early identification of potential improper practices of such entities, which would enable them to protect Polish clients.

Revolut is among a number of app-only banks that have sprung up in Europe in recent years with the aim of taking advantage of new digital technologies to offer user friendly and cheaper services to consumers and small businesses.